Chile Miners: Strength of the human spirit – plus remarkable VIDEO

We’ve been keeping you informed of the situation with the trapped Chilean miners. It was nothing short of a miracle when they were finally located still alive after being deep underground after a mine collapse, for over 2 weeks. Then we told how NASA had been asked for help with the psychological aspects of the miner’s health as we learned they may be stuck underground for several months, maybe until Christmas.

At that time the miners had not been told that it may be a long while until rescuers can get them out but it seems that in a conversation yesterday with the Chilean President, Sebastian Pinera, the men were told of how lengthy their plight might be and extraordinarily seemed to accept the news calmly, according to Sam Jones over on The Guardian. Now there’s more news as the Chilean government has released some remarkable video footage, which you can see below this story, of the miners deep below ground, seemingly in good spirits.

The men, who have now been trapped for 3 weeks, were sent a video camera and other equipment through the emergency shaft and filmed 45 minutes of understandably grainy film, of which 5 minutes has been released, according to Sam Jones on the Guardian. They appear to be organized and calm and have set up a routine of sorts.

They are stripped to the waist, which makes sense as the temperature down there is around 29.5C, and one of the miners even gives a guided tour of the area where they are living and points out how structured their existence is, showing things such as a small cup for when they brush their teeth, first aid cabinet, mats, an area for prayer and another area for playing cards and dominoes. Many of the men are pictured smiling at the camera and waving, whilst others give messages. At the end of the video the men even burst into a rousing rendition of the Chile national anthem.

It’s a heartening to see the video and realize the strength of the human spirit, and hopefully it will also give hope and consolation to the men’s families, to be able to see how well they are faring. For more on this go to guardian.co.uk. What are your thoughts for the Chile miners? We’d be interested to hear your comments on this so please do send them in.